Top crypto stories of week 38, 2023
Mon 18 to Sun 24 September 2023
The 20 top stories on Kiwi News from Mon 18 to Sun 24 September 2023, ranked by upvotes, comments and clicks, with 0 comments in total. Most-shared sources: twitter.com, a16zcrypto.com.
Text under a title is an AI summary of the linked article.
- curl adds IPFS support (curl.se)
curl now supports IPFS URLs such as ipfs://, so users can fetch IPFS content without writing out a gateway address. curl rewrites the IPFS URL into a gateway URL, using the IPFS_GATEWAY environment variable, a ~/.ipfs/gateway file, or the --ipfs-gateway argument to find the gateway. The --ipfs-gateway argument overrides other settings and does not fall back to them if it fails. Gateway redirects are not followed by default, so the -L option is needed to follow them, such as dweb.link's redirect from path-based to subdomain-based requests.
- Most unfollowed Farcaster handles (hatecast.xyz)
- kiwinews.lol updates: backed by a database, adds story permalinks (warpcast.com)
- The Truffle Suite will be sunsetting over the next 90 days (twitter.com)
- The casino on Mars (paradigm.xyz)
The article argues that crypto speculation, though often unsavory, is a necessary bootstrapping process for a new system of digital property rights and financial infrastructure. It says speculation drives attention, investment, talent, and infrastructure, and that trading activity is a natural result of people experimenting with newly recorded scarce assets. It cites crypto money's use by ordinary people in Argentina, Turkey, and Ukraine as evidence of its value. The author also notes real risks, including scams, rug pulls, and short-term extraction by sophisticated traders, and says some self-regulation or regulation may be needed. It compares crypto's skepticism to earlier doubts about Apple and the telephone.
- Crypto Startup School Applications Now Open for Spring 2024 in London (a16zcrypto.com)
Applications are open for the Spring 2024 cohort of Crypto Startup School (CSS), a16z's twelve-week in-person accelerator for early-stage crypto companies, which will run in London from March with a Demo Day in June. Applications close October 20, 2023, and teams from around the world may apply, though the firm hopes for more applicants from the UK and Europe than in previous cohorts. a16z crypto invests in each participating company on standard terms of $500,000 for 7% equity. The program will also be expanded to two sessions per year, and its content will be published publicly afterward.
- 分叉代表了组形成的新原语。 (philmohun.com)
- Bankless Podcast with Vitalik: Imagining the Unimaginable Future of Ethereum (podcast.banklesshq.com)
- Why You Should Put Your Music Onchain. (mirror.xyz)
- Discover curated, dynamic, browser-native artworks every time you open a new tab (x.com)
- Crypto Leftist Heuristics: What is a DAO? (theblockchainsocialist.com)
The author argues that the term DAO is often used loosely, so its meaning should be defined by members rather than by marketing or crypto branding. An organization calling itself a DAO signals affiliation with crypto more than its structure, and some DAOs have only one member. The article notes that the original term was Decentralized Autonomous Corporation, which Vitalik Buterin changed to "organization" in 2013. It also states that decentralized blockchain infrastructure does not make politics or ownership decentralized, and that on-chain and off-chain governance involve different trade-offs.
- Btc vs FED - a fresh review by Arthur Hayes (cryptohayes.substack.com)
Arthur Hayes argues that the Fed's continued rate hikes are keeping real yields negative, which sustains a government-funded financial repression model that he says could still support Bitcoin. He points to a forecast that third-quarter 2023 nominal GDP growth of 9.4% (5.7% real growth plus a 3.7% deflator) would leave the 2-year Treasury yield of 5% at a real yield of -4.4%. He also says that falling capital gains tax receipts after 2021, when realized gains reached 8.7% of GDP according to the US Congressional Budget Office, have weakened government revenue.
- DALL·E 3 (openai.com)
OpenAI has released DALL·E 3, which it says understands significantly more nuance and detail than its previous systems and is now available to all ChatGPT users and through its API for developers. The article says DALL·E 3 is designed to adhere closely to the text users provide, and that ChatGPT can generate detailed prompts for it from a simple idea and make tweaks to images with a few words. It also states that DALL·E 3 declines requests for public figures by name and for images in the style of a living artist, and that creators can opt their images out of training future models.
- a16z Crypto Startup School applications are open (a16zcrypto.com)
a16z is accepting applications for its Crypto Startup School, known as a16z CSX, an intensive program that connects founders with capital, a network of industry experts, and a cohort of leading web3 teams. The curriculum covers finding product-market fit, navigating web3 infrastructure, decentralizing and tokenizing, crafting a go-to-market strategy, and managing legal and regulatory issues. The page also states that its listed investments are not representative of all a16z investments and that past results do not indicate future results.
- Tar Tasks: The stickiest thing that's holding you back (wysr.xyz)
Tar Tasks are simple-sounding to-do items that stay unfinished because of fear of failure, and the author offers ways to get them done. The piece says a Tar Task is often a task that seems simple but is not, and that avoiding it spares you from proving to yourself that you can't do it. It separates these from Hassle Hurdles, which are tasks you dislike rather than ones that cause vague dread, and suggests that if you roll your eyes when asked about one, it is probably a Hassle Hurdle. To break a Tar Task down, it recommends prefixing it with "Write out the 10 steps required to," or handing it to someone else.
- How VC works with some numbers (markmacleod.me)
VC funds depend on a few outlier wins, so venture investors look for companies with home-run potential. In a hypothetical $100M fund called Acme Ventures, managers charge a 2% annual management fee ($2M per year) and receive 20% of profits as carried interest, which totals $40M from $300M in returns. Of 12 investments, two home runs generate most of the returns, and the example says that reaching $250M from two deals at a 15% stake would require exits worth $1.67 billion combined.
- Infinite Modding (aw.network)
Onchain games could be infinitely modded by anyone, since composability lets new functionality be deployed on top of a live game without permission from its developers. The essay traces gaming's history as a drama in which authorship keeps being redrawn, from single-person development to big studios to open engines. It cites Counter-Strike, built on Half-Life's engine, and Dota 2 and League of Legends, which began as mods, as examples of players shaping games. It argues that because onchain rules bind developers as much as players, the audience becomes the final judge of a game's direction through play.
- Understanding Protocol Rewards on Zora (support.zora.co)
Zora's help page explains how rewards are split on trades of its coins, with fee structures that differ by coin type and creation date. Creator Coins and Pairs carry a 1% trading fee on all trades, split among the creator (0.5%), LP Contribution (0.5%), Platform Referral (0.2%), Market Contribution (0.2%), Trade Referral (0.04%), Protocol (0.05%) and Doppler (0.01%). Trend Coins carry a 0.01% fee, and the page states that these rewards apply to coins created on or after September 15, 2025, while older coins keep their original structures.
- Optimism Announces OP Airdrop 3 (twitter.com)
- What’s next for Farcaster with Dan Romero (youtu.be)